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Micky Two Pints

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Posts posted by Micky Two Pints

  1. I've had a 650 for a year or so and am constantly plagued by crashes. Just came back from a weekend caching and the GPSr, must have crashed about 15 times over those three days. I really can't afford to replace the unit at this stage so suspect I'll just have to live with it but it really shouldn't be happening in a unit costing as much as it does. My little old Oregon 200 never hung once over the 3 years that I had it.

  2. I dropped a micro not so long ago and it fell in a bramble bush! I searched and searched for about half an hour but it had disappeared. They're a bit like golf balls, once they land in the rough, they just disappear. Anyway, I fortunately had a virtually identical cache with me (although mine was bright red rather than the more discrete black of the original). I left my cache in place of the lost one and sent a message to the CO to confess what I had done. Halfpint was most unhappy as she used to like playing 'geocaching' in the garden by hiding that cache and getting the rest of us to hunt for it! I'll have to invest in a replacement.

  3. Hi,

     

    I've seen a number of caches in the high terrain bracket that I would love to try such as these (GC23YZX,GC23Z06,GC23Z0B,GC2Y9WW) and would love to have a go at this type of cache but I don't know where to get the climbing/abseiling gear and where to get lessons as to how to use it when I have it. Can you just buy the stuff, have a quick lesson then head out on your own or does it take a number of years to get good enough to do this sort of thing? It's just that 'normal' people (ie not professional climbers) seem to be doing this so it looks like something that could be achieved fairly quickly. Has anyone got any ideas how to get started on this? I'm in the South Hampshire area.

     

    Many thanks

     

    Micky

  4. As I own a pub in north Wales and speak from experience. I have no objection to people parking their car in my car park as long as they ask permission to do so

    I have many fishermen and walkers that do just that many of which do not use the pub at that time but may return one day for a meal etc,

    What is annoying is people that think they can just abandon their car and go off and do whatever it is they are doing, without so much as asking.

    I do get my revenge though, as I have a large 4x4 and can park it across the entrance to the car park, so they have to come in to get me to move it.

     

    But how would 'genuine' customers get into the car park if there's a 4x4 parked across the entrance? Wouldn't they go elsewhere? Seems a bit excessive to turn away a whole days customers for the sake of one 'unidentified' car in the car park. To be honest, when was the last time anyone was asked for their number plate when they went into a pub? So, (unless you're turning up at 6:30am) how would the landlord ever know you're not in the pub unless it's only a small pub with a small car park in which case I would suggest parking elsewhere anyway. As with most things in life it's really just about common sense.

     

    Micky TP

  5. And at the end of the day they're only cheating themselves, so who really cares :)

     

    I completely agree and as the recent Geocaching newsletter said:

     

    "You've looked. You really have. The geocache is not a container magnetized under the park bench. It's not that funny looking rock, and of course it's not under the lamp post cover. You've checked the previous logs and the hint. The geocache could be there, but you can't seem to find it. You give up (for now). Geocaching doesn't stop there though. Here's what you do. You log a DNF on the geocache page. It's "Did not find" and it means, "I care."

    When you log a DNF, you're telling geocachers that the geocache may be more difficult to find than anticipated or may even be missing. You're also letting the geocache owner know that they may need to double check that their geocache container can still be located at the posted coordinates.

    If you're a geocacher who logged any of the more than nine million DNF's posted to Geocaching so far, thanks from the geocaching community. It's a small way to help ensure the quality of geocaching. Plus, you can always go back and search again. Who knows, maybe this time you'll catch a break and log a "Found it!""

     

    Would someone really ruin their geocaching history just to meet a challenge? I guess some might but I wouldn't, I treasure my DNF history as much as my finds.

     

    Micky TP

  6. Another way to do it would be to centre the query on one of the geocaches. I've done the Cranborne series an thoroughly enjoyed it. Although you'll be tired at the end, as you're so close, you have to make it 100 in a day so you might want to grab a few on the way there.

     

    Micky

     

    Hmmm .... I'm not sure how the link below got there but I don't seem to be able to get rid of it so I'd recommend ignoring it!

  7. drsolly said:

     

    The whistle is not only for emergency "Here I am" use. I've also used it as an animal-deterrent. A quick blast on an Acme Thunderer makes cows, etc, take a couple of steps back. The mirror not only lets me look in places I couldn't otherwise look (such as the far side of crinkly fences), it also lets me look in places that I could look but only if I get down on hands and knees, and although for many people getting down on hands and knees is no big deal, I can tell you that with my current dodgy thigh, it's nice not to have to.

     

    Well, that's really convinced me now. I've had a couple of run ins with our four legged mooing friends in the past and whilst waving my trekking pole about helps, a whistle would be just the job.

     

    Thanks

     

    Mike

  8. Spare batteries, notebook, spare pens, swiss army penknife (with tweezers), paper towels (for mopping up blood from cuts and grazes) - came in very handy once when I walked face first into some hanging brambles ... there was blood everywhere. I'm not sure what the muggles would have thought if I continued walking in the state I was in!!. Hand gel for eating sarnies half way round after rummaging in the undergrowth, snacks (cereal bars), torch, OS Map (just in case the GPSr packs up), small amount of cash. I like the whistle and mirror idea so I might have to adopt those too.

     

    Cheers

     

    Mike

  9. I've bumped into other geocachers on occasions and one time on the way home from a trip to Devon we stopped at some services to grab a quick cache and although I thought we'd sneaked off without being seen, on returning to the car park a lady, sitting in her car with the family, asked if we were Geocaching as she used to do it with the kids. I had no choice but to confess. I'm obviously not as sneaky as I thought.

     

    I've also been asked if I'm lost a couple if times and I just say 'No' and that's generally the end of the conversation.

     

    One time, when trying to grab a few caches after finishing work, I was searching around some trees just off a footpath through a park when I heard voices so I hopped back out onto the dimly lit path, wearing my office clothes and holding the GPS. When the dog walking muggles came round the corner, one of the walkers stopped and asked if I was from the electric board. She thought I was there inspecting all the streetlights that weren't working! If I'd said 'Yes' I'm sure I'd have got an earbashing as she didn't seem too happy with the lighting situation!

  10. Merry Christmas. Got my Lenser P7 torch for Christmas and managed to sneak our this morning to grab a couple of festive caches.

     

    I've eaten too much so don't have much room left for beer now. I'm sure I'll manage a couple more though. :).

     

    MTP

  11. I seem to have a similar problem. I have 650 finds with 649 distinct. I have GSAK but still cant find the odd one. GSAK says there are 650 records but when you count them, there are 649. How can I tell from GSAK which one is the 'indistinct' one? I've tried exporting to Excel but there are only 69 records so that doesn't help!!

     

    Thanks

     

    Mike

     

    Cancel that question .. I've just figured it out. Cheers anyway

  12. That sounds very frightening indeed. I got chased by a herd of cows on my first encounter with them. My second encounter went better after I'd learnt the 'waving hands and shouting" method.

     

    However, during a holiday in Devon last week I appraoched a herd of 'cows' in a field and they all scattered but they soon regained confidence and headed back towards me. As I was about a third of the way up the field, they were surrounding me on three sides and it was at that point that I realised these were heffers and not cows. A couple of ramblers in the next field up the hill stopped to watch the encounter and at that point, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and slowly reversed back across the field followed by the heffers. Very frightening.

     

    Just this week I entered a field full of cows which seemed OK but a few stopped to watch me. I then realised that amongst he cows there were bulls too and they were the ones watching. I walked along the fence, ready to jump over at any minute and as I got to the end if the field I turned a corner and there were a load of the animals stood right by the stile and they weren't moving. I was 20 metres from the cache but after a while decided to leave it and return another day. It's really not worth the risk.

  13. Having extoled the virtues of my HTC Desire HD in previous threads, I've now gone and bought an Oregon 200 as the phone just cannot be trusted to deliver a GPS signal and draw maps when needed. This has become more obvious as my geocaching exploits have become more adventurous and I head off in the countryside for hours on end with little in the way of a mobile signal. You don't have to search far on the internet to read numerous posts about the stability of the GPS on Android phones either.

     

    I have yet ro receive the Oregon but I'm expecting it to improve my rural geocaching considerably. When you're two hours walk from your car and you're in the middle of nowhere, you really do need to know where you are and in my experience, I can no longer rely on my Android phone to do so.

  14. Further to my earlier comment, the GPS has now proved to be more than a little tempremental on my HTC Desire (and I have found many topics on forums that experience the same problem) and I have often been found in the middle of nowhere with no GPS on the phone. It's not because of tree cover, it just stops working. It's starting the wind me up so I wonder, with a dedicated GPS, are you virtually guaranteed a GPS signal?

     

    If so, I may have to invest sooner than I expected.

     

    M

  15. I live in the Southampton area and if you're not at a new cache within 15 minutes, forget it!!

     

    I placed a new cache a few weeks ago and I said to my Mother In Law that someone would find it within an hour ... 15 minutes after it was published, the first find was logged.

     

    However, I work in Basingstoke and a couple of new caches were published last week at about 3pm. After I left work at 5pm, I went searching for them. I got a DNF on the first one as the heavens opened and I was getting soaked. Got a FTF on the next one though, about 3 hours after it was published. I went back the following day in my lunch hour for the other one but was beaten to it by two hours so that one had not been found until the following day.

     

    I guess it depends on how active the geocaching community is in a particular area.

     

    Micky Two Pints

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